Disbarred Vegas lawyer linked to massive HOA scheme dies in federal custody
A disbarred Las Vegas attorney convicted in the scheme to take over and defraud homeowners associations has died in federal custody at a local hospice, one of his lawyers said Thursday.
The death of Barry Levinson on Wednesday night came as lawyers Brent Bryson and Cal Potter were preparing a civil rights lawsuit against authorities over his deteriorating health.
Levinson, 48, who had been suffering from heart problems, is the seventh player in the massive HOA scheme to die since 2008. He was among 42 defendants convicted in the long-running investigation regarded as the largest public corruption case in Southern Nevada.
The Clark County coroner's office confirmed it had a case on Levinson, but said it could not provide information on his death.
Bryson said he believes Levinson did not receive proper medications while originally being held in August at the Clark County Detention Center and then the High Desert State Prison, about 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas, just south of Indian Springs.
Bryson said he and Potter visited Levinson at the hospice on Tuesday and found him having trouble breathing and only able to remain conscious for brief periods of time.
"The lack of regular medication is what started Barry's health to spiral downward and the eventual need for heart surgery," Bryson said. "Because of his status as a prisoner no hospital here in Nevada would perform the surgery.
"We believe Barry's life could have been saved if the surgery had been performed timely. It wasn't, and now Barry is dead."
Despite his troubles with the law, Levinson deserved better, Bryson said.
"Some people want to focus on Barry's shortcomings," he said. "It's important to remember that Barry was a human being who deserved proper medical care and treatment regardless of his criminal convictions."
Levinson's health problems worsened after District Judge Michael Villani gave him a stiff prison sentence Aug. 13 for a state conviction involving the theft of money from his clients. The judge ordered him taken into custody from the courtroom that day, just a week before he was to surrender to federal authorities.
Villani ignored a plea agreement and sentenced Levinson to at least eight years in state prison to run consecutively with a 6½-year federal prison term in the high-profile HOA case.
The plea agreement had called for a minimum of two years in prison to run concurrently with the federal sentence.
Earlier this month, Villani denied a request from Bryson to reconsider the sentence or let Levinson withdraw his plea.
Bryson complained in court about Levinson's lack of proper medication while in county and state custody and told Villani that Levinson went into heart failure after federal authorities gained custody at the end of August.
Levinson needed a special heart valve operation or a heart transplant to survive, Bryson said. Levinson had been hospitalized under the watch of U.S. marshals for several weeks and recently was transported to the hospice as his condition deteriorated.
He had agreed to permanent disbarment as part of his federal plea deal.
Federal authorities linked Levinson to the HOA scheme's central figure, convicted former construction company boss Leon Benzer, who was seeking a lucrative contract for construction defect work.
Three defendants who pleaded guilty died before they could be sentenced. Attorney David Amesbury hanged himself and corrupted HOA board members Darryl Scott Nichols and Arnold Myers died of natural causes.
Three other deaths have been linked to the investigation.
Construction defect attorney Nancy Quon, who prosecutors alleged helped bankroll the takeover scheme, killed herself. Former Las Vegas police officer Christopher Van Cleef, an HOA board member, shot himself to death days after an FBI raid in the case, and board member Robbi Castro later died of a drug overdose. All three were not charged in the case.
Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find him on Twitter: @JGermanRJ
